Finger painting
by Sakura no Umi
Summary: Juudai had no commonsense when it came to finger painting. Luckily for him, Yubel was there to clean up his messes and stop potential disasters


Windswift was awesome and beta-ed this fic for me. I love her dearly especially since she voluntary beta-ed this for me instead of me having to annoy her into doing it.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

_Finger Painting_

Yuuki Juudai was home alone yet again as his parents worked like usual. He wasn't really alone because Yubel was there, but she always made him entertain himself. Juudai was bored and he couldn't go over to Osamu's house today either. Osamu had told him the day before that he was extremely busy; however, he would periodically check up on Juudai just in case.

Juudai wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do today, and Yubel wasn't being much of a help. He couldn't draw because his crayons were all gone, and his parents had yet to buy him a new box. His parents no longer kept markers in the house after the time he had decorated the walls of his room with them. His parents were angry about that and one or the other had supervised Juudai for a whole week after that. That was a rare treat to have his parents home, but they weren't really fun. They were more angry about the fact that they were missing work to keep an eye on him. He was happy when it only lasted a week.

Juudai spied the box of finger paint sitting on his desk. That would work to entertain him. He had gotten them as a birthday present from some relative and hadn't used them yet. He grabbed the box and began to open it, pulling the bottles out. He was happy when the first bottle he pulled out was red. He also got the colors blue, green, yellow, orange, and purple, but he was more concerned with red since it was his favorite color.

Juudai settled himself on the floor of his room with a sheet of paper in front of him and the red bottle of paint opened. He was about to squirt some of the red on the paper and start painting when he was stopped.

"Juudai, what are you doing?" Yubel called, materializing behind the boy.

"Yubel," he called, turning around and happy to see her, "I'm going to paint a picture with finger paint."

"Not on the floor you aren't."

"Why not?" Juudai asked with a slight pout. "I color on the floor all the time and you never say anything about that."

"Paint is messy, and like markers it makes your parents mad when you get it on anything but the paper."

"You knew about the marker incident?" Juudai cried, incredulous. That had been before he had met Yubel. There was no way she could know about that.

"Painting on your floor would turn out exactly like the time you colored your walls with markers."

Juudai gasped. Yubel did know about the marker incident. What else might she know that she hadn't told him about? What if she told his parents about some of the other things he had done that they never found out about?

"Then how am I supposed to paint?" he asked, pouting. He really didn't want to have to find something else to entertain himself with.

"You can still paint, but you have to do it at the table, with paper covering the table in case you make a mess."

"Okay."

Juudai got up off the floor and made his way to where his parents kept the newspaper. Yubel instructed him on how to lay it out on the table. When that was done, Juudai began to carry paper and paint to the table.

"Now can I start?" Juudai asked.

"You need one more thing. Paper plates to pour the paint on."

Juudai went and fetched the plates and poured paint on them like Yubel instructed him to. Satisfied, Yubel let him start painting.

Juudai stuck his hand in the red paint first. The paint was wet and felt cool between his fingers. He decided that this was even better than crayons. However, he didn't know what he wanted to paint so he brought his finger up to his chin much like he would bring his crayon up to his chin in thought. He didn't realize he left red paint on his chin, but Yubel did. She sighed internally knowing full well that Juudai was going to end up painting himself instead of the paper. At least he was easier to clean than the walls or the carpet.

Juudai began to trace his fingers randomly over the paper, watching as the paint was smeared and left behind. He dipped his fingers into the red paint again and made polka dots next on the paper. He decided he wanted to use purple next, but he still had red on his hands so he decided to rub his hands on his pants like he did when his hands were wet. Yubel stopped him before he could and told him to rub his hands on the newspaper to get the excess paint off.

With purple now on his hands Juudai began to make swirls on the paper. He had to stop to scratch his cheek and left purple paint behind on one of them. Next he used green paint to make circles and triangles. His forehead itched this time and green ended up there as well. He used the blue next and splattered it on the paper, as well as managing to splatter it on his face too. He was oblivious to the paint on his face, and was definitely convinced that finger paint was better than crayons.

The yellow paint bottle lay forgotten on the edge of the table. Yubel had not noticed its proximity to the edge nor the fact that Juudai had not closed the cap. Juudai was just oblivious to everything. Juudai chose that moment to turn and face Yubel, picture in one hand while the other caught the yellow paint and sent it toppling over the edge.

"Look at my…" Juudai trailed off as he heard a thunk. He turned around and saw the yellow bottle on the floor and paint spilling out on to the brown rug under the table.

Juudai turned back around to face Yubel, tears in his eyes.

"Yubel, what am I going to do? Mommy and Daddy are going to be mad at me again."

"Pick the bottle up, and set it on the table with its cap on," she responded calmly.

Juudai did as she told him, and when he was finished he turned back to face her. His eyes were watery and full of fear. He didn't want to be scolded like the marker incident, and he figured Yubel couldn't fix this since she made him paint with newspaper in the first place.

"It's going to be okay, Juudai," Yubel said, reaching out to touch his face. Neither of them could feel her touch, but it comforted Juudai none the less.

"Come follow me," she told him, getting up and walking toward the bathroom.

Juudai followed close behind and would have been clinging to her if she was solid.

Upon reaching the bathroom, Yubel became solid and grabbed the red washcloth. She got it damp and put soap on it, and began to wash the paint off Juudai's face. Juudai held still and found comfort in her touch.

When she had cleaned all the paint off his face, she began to work on cleaning the remaining paint off his hands. She then dried his face and hands, and when she was done Juudai immediately clung to her burying his face in her leg. She reached down and ran her fingers through his hair to comfort him.

"Come, Juudai," she called softly, and held a hand out to him when he looked up.

He grabbed her hand and let her lead him back to the table.

"What am I going to do, Yubel?" he asked.

"Watch, Juudai," she responded.

Yubel kneeled next to the paint stain, still grasping Juudai's hand. Her other hand was outstretched above the stain. Her hand began to glow a blue-green, and the paint stain slowly began to disappear. Juudai looked on wide-eyed.

"Is that magic?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied. "The protector of a prince has to have magic in order to protect the prince."

"Yubel, why do you call me a prince sometimes?"

"You'll understand when you're older," she replied.

"What am I a prince of?" he pressed, not wanting to drop the subject.

"The Gentle Darkness."

"Darkness is gentle?" he asked, disbelieving. "I thought darkness was evil and that light was good and gentle."

"Not in this case," she replied. "The darkness is gentle and the light is destructive."

"So if I'm this prince of Gentle Darkness, does that make Daddy and Mommy the king and queen?"

"No, and Juudai, you can't tell anyone about being a prince. Promise?"

"I don't understand why not, but since it's you, Yubel, I'll promise," he replied as he held his pinky out to her.

Yubel smiled before extending her own pinky and shaking his.

"Now why don't you go hang your picture on the fridge."

"Okay," he replied enthusiastically before grabbing the picture and running over to the fridge.

Yubel smiled and went back to her spirit form. Juudai didn't seem too traumatized over the paint, so she didn't need to be solid to comfort him anymore. She was hoping that Osamu would come check up on Juudai soon. She had used most of her energy up and needed to rest in her card. She didn't mind it though. She would rather use up her energy to put a smile back on Juudai's face than not use it and watch him cry.


End file.
